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Collections

Collections

The Museum displays archaeological and ethnographic objects from all parts of the world. The General Pitt Rivers's founding gift contained more than 26,000 objects, but there are now over half a million. The extensive photographic and sound archives contain early records of great importance. Today the Museum is an active teaching department of the University of Oxford. It continues to expand its collections through donations, bequests and special purchases, as well as through students in the course of their fieldwork. The collections lie at the heart of our research and partnerships.

Using our collections

Our services

The Museum has a number of facilities to support research visits. Our staff are on hand to support requests, including the documenting and digitising of fieldwork collections. We support more than 600 research visits every year. We will do everything we can to provide access, and apologize if we cannot accomodate your request due to limitations on staff time or the fragility of items requested.

Past exhibitions

See documentation about a selection of the Museum's past exhibitions

Conservation

The work of conservators underpins every aspect of Museum activity, and their understanding of the diverse materials from which ethnographic artefacts are made is vital. As well as conserving artefacts, they advise on the control of the Museum's environment, prevent insect attacks without deploying dangerous pesticides, and oversee the safe packing of artefacts for international loan or safe storage.

The case studies on this page document the work of the conservators responsible for safeguarding the 300,000 artefacts in the Museum's collections.